How do I calculate how many calories I burn in a workout?

shannontannerlvt

I do a lot of YouTube workouts but not all of them list the number of calories you burn doing them. How can I calculate that number?

AnnPT77

What type of workout?

There will be some workout listed in the MFP exercise database (under cardiovascular) that you can use. If it's a dance-y style of workout, use one of the "aerobics" entries. If it's lots of bodyweight exercises, use "calisthenics". If it's high rep sets with low weights, use "circuit training". And so forth. Some people feel that the MFP database over-estimates exercise calories. If you're concerned about that, start by eating a fair fraction of them back (say, 50% or so), assess your results (average weight loss rate) over 4-6 weeks or so, then adjust accordingly.

Another option would be to use a heart rate monitor or fitness tracker to get estimates. These are decent-ish for estimating steady-state cardio, not as good for estimating intervals or weight-moving exercises (bodyweight or external weights), but they can be used like the MFP database estimates: Treat them as reasonable for a while, assess and adjust after several weeks.

Best wishes!

Azdak

Multiply your body weight in kilograms by 5. That will give you calories per hour—modify that number by the fraction of an hour you worked out (activity, not the stretching and ab stuff).

That’s as accurate as you need right now. And then also do what AnnPT77 said.